The game is on.

In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. – Albert Camus

Nothing is inevitable and everything is to play for. The game is on. 

After lying on my sofa, binge watching Colin from Accounts and eating too many crisps, I eventually found myself saying - well fuck these guys. 

Trump’s re-election is a big problem. His cosy relationship with the Tech Bros is a big problem. 

But the only true problem — the only intractable one — is if they convince us there is nothing we can do. 

Everything about the last few days has been designed to overwhelm and confuse - from Trump’s megalomania in his administration appointments, to his use of totalitarian language like the “left wing censorship regime”, to his “list”of revenge targets. 

It’s predictable. Designed to make us feel powerless. To make us feel like we’ve lost and that it’s all too much. They want us to switch off and shut up. 

Don’t get me wrong. Nothing about this is good. Trump, Musk, Thiel, and their cronies are dangerous people, driven by a blood lust for power and money, with egos that most of us can’t comprehend. They play the long game. They want to take over the whole system and establish unfettered control. They want capture. 

They will make examples of their most influential critics; the activists, academics and journalists. They will fight dirty to target, isolate, prosecute and ruin them, and send a message of what will happen to anyone else who dares to challenge them.

And they are already having a chilling effect on US philanthropy. We just lost an in principle commitment for a sizable three year grant by a foundation whose values were previously aligned with ours and overnight weren’t. So we need you to help us keep the lights burning.

And what do we plan to do now? Well, once I ran out of crisps, we sat down as a team and thought about what resistance means to us? What do we have in our arsenal to fight back with? What small part of the resistance can we organise?

And a big part of our answer is: you. 

So Trump - you aren’t the only one who can count to 5… Here is our plan.

1/ the activists

Across the world there are hundreds of court cases being fought; dozens of important policies presented to reticent, heavily lobbied governments; researchers working to bring daylight to darkness; and campaigners demanding regulatory oversight. 

The people doing this work are our heroes and yet little is known of their work. We plan to change that. We will be giving them our platform, raising their profile in the media, and most importantly connecting them with you so you can help back their actions. Expect events, features and calls to action. 

2/ the culture makers 

Andrew Brietbart and Steve Bannon said years ago politics is downstream from culture. The takeover of politics by “broligarchs” and tech billionaires has been unchecked by traditional means. Big Tech power brokers took control of the culture and have won the day. For now!

For the last few months we have been working with a growing network of culture makers - from artists and filmmakers to podcast creators. We understand that a big way to fight back against the broligarchs is through culture. We’ve got a lot of announcements to make in this area - but this newsletter is getting unreasonably long so I’ll say more next week. Last week we dropped this film on political deepfakes, soon you should expect a collaboration with an Oscar-winning filmmaker, events, content, features and much more. 

That’s not all. We want to launch a YouTube channel - if any protein shake dude with a microphone can do it - so can we. We are coming up with format ideas and will be putting these to you so you can tell us what you think is the best use of our energy and scant resources. 

3/ the journalism 

We have been investigating and reporting on the unchecked power of Big Tech for a long time. Its takeover of democracy has been an insidious 20 year journey. Our co-founder Carole Cadwalladr was one of the first to expose it. 

Luckily mainstream media has caught on, reporting on Musk has grown 64% in the last 10 days. But he is a distraction, not because he isn’t dangerous, but his objective is to “flood the zone”.

That said - this did make me lol.

Meanwhile we will be doing what we have always done - looking at the bigger picture of democratic erosion to see where tech bros are headed and the roadblocks we need to put in their way. We will continue to run our investigations but we will be changing our output a bit. More on that soon. 

4/ the community 

Our strength is in numbers and we need you to back us every step of the way. We are going to be coming up with a lot of ways to fight back, from new content, to legal actions to consumer actions - but perhaps the most important thing we can do right now is talk to each other. 

We need to do more events, we need to mobilise local chapters and meet ups, we need to get educated and connected. We won’t curl up in a ball, throw our arms in the air, or heads in the sand - we will meet and mobilise. Our rights are collective and we will defend them together. 

5/ global solidarity  

The problems we have are global ones because technology platforms are global. The slide to autocracy is also, sadly global. But this is also an opportunity for strength. Every legal jurisdiction is now a battlefield. If we can’t rein in big tech in the U.S. we can do more in the EU, in Africa and many more places - because wherever we can strike a blow is where we need to be. One thing is for sure; with the US "censorship cartel” being dismantled, we can do and say things here that our peers and colleagues in the U.S. will be under serious attack for. 

We are pulling this all off with a tiny team, and our plans to have more hands on deck feels like a pipe dream. We urgently need your help. Our funding from US philanthropy is in grave danger and we desperately need your support. If you can give us the price of a coffee each month - we can keep doing this work.

Please share this with your channels. Most importantly please stay engaged and resist!

Clara Maguire
Executive Director